Tiles were not produced in great
quantities before circa 1200, and large-scale tile production
kicks off at basically the same moment as the new
"Kashan" style of painting: it is rare to find tiles
decorated in the "Monumental" or "Miniature"
styles althought they do exist. However, from the turn of the
C13th, much of finest work of the Kashan potters is on tiles. The
two prominent figures in this development are the potters
Muhammad ibn Abu Tahir and Abu Zaid, who are known through
signatures to have worked together on the most important tilework
projects of the pre-Mongol period.

Their earliest dated joint effort
is a sarcophagus in the tomb-chamber at Qumm, where the top panel
is signed by Muhammad and the main frieze is signed by Abu Zaid.
This work is dated 1206. At Mashhad in 1215 they undertake a much
more ambitious project, cladding the walls in star and octagonal
tiles surmounted by an inscription frieze, and installing two
large and elaborate mihrabs, one of which is signed by Abu Zaid
as well as a number of the star tiles. This is extremely high
quality work, and shows that Abu Zaid produced some of the best
products of the whole Kashan industry. There has been some
confusion over dating this shrine, because two dates exist side
by side in the inscriptions: 1215 and 1118. It is now thought
that the tiling dates to the C13th, but the earlier date is
included to commemorate the decoration that was replaced in 1215.

This pre-Mongol era in tile
production sees a peak of artistic and technical achievement that
is never again matched. The sudden decline in tile production
after 1220 may be a result of the first wave of Mongol invasions,
but may be equally due to the death of the pottery
industrys two major figures, Muhammad ibn Abu Tahir and Abu
Zaid. The formers last dated work was 1215 (Mashhad) and
the latters was 1219. Thereafter there appears to be a
vacuum which proves difficult to fill.

From this vacuum emerges the next
generation of potters, who attempt to imitate the high quality
work of their predecessors, and who do produce some masterpieces,
but the technique and quality of execution is generally more
simplified and standardised than the earlier products. The
leading lights of the next generation emerge first in the 1220s
and 1230s, but their artistic talents do not really emerge until
the resumption of large-scale tile production in the 1260s. Hasan
ibn al-Arabshah signed the mihrab from the Maidan Mosque in
Kashan (d.1226) which according to Watson is timid and restrained
in design; the son of Muhammad ibn Abu Tahir, Ali, produces a
mihrab in 1242 for Mashhad, in which the cobalt has run badly,
implying Alis technical skills are not yet developed.

Very few dated pieces are known
from the period 1220  1260, but thereafter a number of
grand commissions by the new Il-Khanid rulers stimulate the
Kashan industry into a resurgence of productivity, in which Ali
ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Tahir dominates. The major complex of the
1260s is the tomb-chamber of Imamzada Yahya at Veramin. The
Ashmolean holds a group of these tiles in its collection. There
are a series of lustre tiles from different dates from this
complex, beginning with star and cross tiles dated 1262; a large
mihrab is dated Shaban 1265, and another mihrab is added to
the complex in Muharram 1305, signed by Alis son Yusuf.

The tomb-chamber of Imamzada
Jafar at Damghan (d.1266-7) is the next big dated complex
with lots of lustre decoration: star and cross tiles survive with
animal and human figural decoration, and inscriptions bearing
Persian poems. There is a beautiful panel of these tiles in the
Louvre. The sizes of the tiles are smaller, and they use blue and
turquoise in the design. Watson thinks the drawing na´ve
compared to pre-Mongol production, but the technical quality is
excellent.

The most important commission in
the 1270s is the extensive palace complex at Takht-i Sulaiman,
built by Abaqa Khan: this is the sole surviving secular building
of this period which has lustre decoration. It is lavishly
decorated in tiles of different techniques including lajvardina,
which is the medium in which the new Chinese designs (phoenix,
dragons, lotuses) especially appear. Star and cross tiles with
inscriptions in Persian verse are dated 1271, 1272 and 1275;
pictorial friezes show scenes of hunting and fighting, and also
scenes from the Shah-Nameh: a lustre tile frieze tile in the
V&A shows the hero Bahram Gur hunting with his favourite
concubine Azada.

The next upturn in production is
the first decade of C14th: in November 1300, 250 tiles were
installed in mosque of Ali in Quhrud near Kashan. These bear
arabesque and floral motifs, and Quranic inscriptions; further
tiles were added in 1307, identical in style though with
inscriptions in Persian verse. Yusuf ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abu
Tahir also signs an inscription frieze dated 1310-11. After this,
production again tails off, with a final and surprising burst of
activity in the1330s when Yusuf signs a large mihrab for Imamzada
Jafar in Qumm (1334); a series of star tiles installed in
same building d.1337 contain two which are inscribed:
" in the place Kashan in the workshop of Sayyid of
Sayyids, Sayyid Rukn al-Din Muhammad son of the late Sayyid Zain
al-Din Ali, the potter; the work of the most noble, the most
excellent master, Master Jamal, the painter (al-naqqash)."

A few other tiles carry dates in
the 1330s, but the very last dated item to be produced from
Kashan kilns is a star tile bearing the date 1339. In the year
before this, another star tile bears the desperate plea:
" in the place Kashan, may Allah, be He exalted,
protect it from the ravages of time." Was this a cry for
help in the face of declining orders?